Aston Martin Vanquish Volante first drive review

We test the ultimate British grand tourer on home turf for the first time.

April 16 2014

Toby Hagon

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.

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Roof down and flat out in the Aston Martin Vanquish Volante unleashes a cacophony of noises few will easily clear from their head. Bouncing off sandstone rock walls back into the cabin of the svelte two-seater gives you a more momentous understanding of the brutal bark of the V12 engine lurking beneath that elegantly long snout.

On a near empty twisting road it’s also a sound that can be heard from kilometres away, as our videographer pointed out as he was waiting for the eloquently-named Vanquish Volante to return into frame.

That’s a small insight into the head-turning theatre of one of the world’s rarest supercars; it’s certainly not the sort of car that slinks into traffic without at least commanding the odd second glance.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante first Australian drive

Does the $500,000 ultimate British grand tourer live up to its hefty pricetag?

The Vanquish name first appeared in 2001 on a car that went on to star in the James Bond blockbuster Die Another Day (some trivia: the car sliding across the ice had a Ford V8 driving all four wheels in place of the rear-driven V12 fitted to examples you could buy).

It was replaced in 2007 by the DBS, which itself was bookended by the new Vanquish, which arrived here in 2013.

And Volante, as with all Aston Martins, denotes the convertible version, but with a name that sounds a lot more special than “soft-top”.

It’s that Volante that we’re driving here – one of the most exclusive cars in the Aston Martin stables. It’s also currently the most powerful Aston money can buy.

Like all Aston Martins some things are done differently, like the tachometer that spins the opposite direction to any other. Even starting it is an involved process that feels more Boeing than car. Push the glass key into the dash (there’s a plastic secondary key, which is the one we had) and hold it in until it starts - unleashing the fury of the sizeable exhaust on each side of the rump. Press the D (for drive) button on the push button gear selector in the dash and release the pull-up, drop-down handbrake tucked to the right of the driver’s seat.

In regular mode - which it reverts to every time you start the car - the big V12 can initially feel lethargic, almost docile. It requires a decent prod of the accelerator to liven its senses.

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But press the red S button on the steering wheel and everything is sharpened, with a more energetic feel to its responses. It’ll also jump down a gear or two (the only transmission is a six-speed auto) in readiness. Any application of the throttle, in particular, is rewarded with a lively surge.

There's also a more guttural burble from the engine in S, something that crescendos into a rollicking roar as it builds pace. And something made all the more visceral by a rock wall or tunnel, as we discovered more than once.

There's an old school feel to the engine, which isn't a bad thing. The 5.9-litre unit (Aston Martin rounds it up to a 6.0-litre) is muscular lower in its rev range but without the turbo thrust becoming more common in performance machines. That's less of an issue above 5000rpm, at which point the engine is firing the near 1.9-tonne machine forwards enthusiastically, tapping into a potent 421kW of power.

That will all change in Aston Martin's next generation powerplants which will be sourced from Mercedes-Benz’s AMG division (the current crop is from Ford and its former ownership of Jaguar), meaning turbochargers and a hefty dose of low-rev muscle.

The six-speed auto links up lazily to ensure decent acceleration, with a relaxed around-town nature in keeping with the grand tourer nature of the car.

Despite the old world charm there’s plenty of futuristic tech to keep even Bond content.

Underneath, there are plenty of exotic materials. The basic structure is made of aluminium with lightweight carbon fibre components for strengthening. All the panels are carbon fibre.

It’s all about keeping weight down, something crucial to the dynamics and performance of any sports car.

Not that the Volante is a featherweight – far from it. By the time the roof mechanism and hefty V12 is fitted the car tops 1.8 tonnes.

But it’s not trying to be a lithe, lightweight sports machine. The Volante is about as grand as a grand tourer can get. Its ability to pamper and make even short drives feel special is something that helps justify the price tag; more on that later.

That weight never goes away, although it brings a solidity in keeping with the character of the car. Through fast, flowing curves there’s impressive ability and poise and the 20-inch Pirelli tyres hang on fantastically.

The suspension, though, is taut and on lower quality road surfaces, tighter bends don’t feel as reassuring. The body can jiggle over successive bumps, while the weight becomes more obvious through slower corners, testing the limits of adhesion, particularly at the nose.

Gentle braking has an ice-like scraping from the carbon ceramic discs, while there's some clinking and clicking as cooling and adjustment goes on once you’re stopped. If nothing else it sounds purposeful.

Stand hard on the brakes and they halt the big two-door body reassuringly. Potent and powerful, the massive discs perform time and again and deal admirably with the substantial stresses a big V12 can put on a set of stoppers.

But as much as the driving thrills the Vanquish is about how it looks – and the experience – inside and out.

The centre console is like no other. Metal-rimmed knobs, some with digital readouts within, make adjusting the ventilation or volume a simple task, while the touchpads are a unique way to toggle between audio outputs or adjust the temperature of your seat. It's like no other and brings a futuristic feel to what is otherwise a traditional, leather-stitched cabin.

The steering wheel is relatively compact and with flattened patches on each side where your hands will be grabbing most of the time. It also makes up for the lack of traditional buttons elsewhere, with the ability to control everything from the trip computer and engine mapping to the excellent Bang & Olufsen sound system.

Storage is tight, though; there's no glovebox and the central binnacle is quickly filled by a phone and some odds and ends. Door pockets partly make up for it, but there’s likely to be occasions where you wish for more.

The compact boot, too, means a weekend away will require careful packing of some soft bags, although at least its volume doesn't change when you raise or lower the roof. Speaking of which, it's a one-button, 14-second process that can be done up to 50km/h and makes for a more open feeling than the compact cabin that only just has enough head room with the roof in place.

Not that any of the above is likely to be a clincher in the deal for the handful of Australians who will park a Vanquish Volante in their driveway.

The svelte styling is likely to be far higher on the list, even if it’s an evolution of the Aston Martins we’ve known for the best part of 20 years. There’s a valid argument that it’s time for change, but there’s still plenty to love with that iconic design.

It’s also about exclusivity, something that comes at a cost; car makers work on scale, and when you’re not producing many cars – which can add to their appeal – you can end up paying for it.

It's difficult to use the word value in the same sentence as a car costing $510,000. Quite simply there are cars that are faster, bigger or more luxurious than the Vanquish. But there aren't many that deliver the same sense of occasion, or the rarity of driving a soft-top that anyone in the same suburb is likely to have. In an era of mass production hand-built cars are a rare beast, and few will be rarer than a Vanquish.